Caught
by Sanis-chan
Summary: The back of a van, two fellow officers, and the Batman himself, handcuffed, and with a lack of consciousness. This had to be the second most awful night James Gordon would ever experience.


Caught

The light flickered as the van drove over a bump, Gordon was sitting in the back with two more officers.

What a chaotic night it had been, the majority of the evening had been spent in a wild chase through the streets of Gotham, but as soon as the target had lost his vehicle, it hadn't been too long for him to get caught.

This catch however, must've been the most terrible moment in his career. Gordon had had a reason to stand across the sidelines. There wasn't much he could've done, after all, it was a cruel choice really.

But in the end the target was caught, and said persons' still form was now lying in front of him.

The target had been no one else but the Batman.

He was still alive of course, although Gordon didn't know how he had imagined this situation. He probably never had been able to visualise this situation. Who knew that the Batman could be caught? Who knew what disaster this would bring to Gotham? Who knew what was the right thing to do? And who knew how the Batman himself would react?

Gordon started rubbing his temples in an attempt to rid himself of the slowly growing headache.

He knew what the Batman was going to ask of him. But he would never be able to answer him. Not like this.

A groan pulled Gordon back to the man in front of him. He watched as the Batman was regaining consciousness, it was obvious that hís headache was for worse than Gordon's.

The Batman raised his arm in an attempt to rub his eyes, only to find his wrists handcuffed to the surface he was laying on. Gordon could see him stiffen as he opened his eyes slightly to investigate. A groan escaped from his lips as he let his head drop back down.

"Are you awake?" The commissioner asked, he knew it was a stupid question, but he had to know whether the vigilante was listening or not.

A deep guttural sound was the reply. Gordon assumed it was a yes.

"What now?" He asked as vaguely as he could, it wasn't a good idea to let the fellow officers know about any connection between him and the Batman.

The light flickered again as the van drove over another bump. Gordon could hear a long lasting sigh.

"Carry on."

It was obvious that his colleagues had no idea what he meant. They didn't ask though, somewhere in the pit of their stomachs they must have felt it too.

This was wrong.

"You know I can't do that…" Gordon said close to a whisper.

More silence.

More bumps in the road.

"No one is going to believe the truth anymore."

Gordon wasn't sure whether that was an argument to win him over, or whether it was the truth.

Probably a mix of both.

He was pretty sure that he was right though. But that didn't change the way he felt about this. Hadn't it been his task to pursue justice? To secure the safety of the citizens?

Batman might've been an extraordinary fellow, but in a way, he was still a citizen. Thus he deserved to be protected. He might have worked outside of the law, but he certainly wasn't a criminal.

Of course, he did have the murder of Harvey Dent on his name, but that had been a very legal case of self-defence. After all Gordon didn't want to think about what might have happened if the Batman hadn't acted like he did. He was grateful for the man in many ways.

Which brought him back to the matter at hands:

Would he, or would he not play witness in court against the Batman?

He knew unlike any other that everything depended on this. If he would decide not to, then there would of course not be a single trace of proof against the vigilante. But if he would chose to cooperate with the Batman, then combined with his own confession, that would be enough to send the man to jail forever.

One thing was inevitable though.

The Batman would be unmasked.

His identity revealed, no longer would the Batman remain faceless. And with his identity revealed he would no longer be safe anywhere. He would no longer be able to simply take off the mask during the day and pretend to be someone else entirely.

His vigilantism would end, the icon destroyed, and most likely, everything would have been in vain.

That was, most likely, what the Batman thought.

But Gordon doubted it.

Gotham couldn't forget about the Batman just like that, right? Wouldn't the story of his career write history?(hadn't it already?) Wouldn't the people stare at him in awe once they learned about his great sacrifice? Wouldn't that be the ultimate form of heroism anyone had ever faced?

This was a belief which had slowly settled in Gordon's mind. More and more had he started to believe that the story of the Batman would mean so much more than even the deeds of Harvey Dent.

Persuading the people of Gotham of the truth would be no easy task though.

Far from it actually, the chances of succeeding were slim. But Gordon had to try, because he would not be able to do otherwise. He would not be able to send the Batman to jail.

The Batman probably knew this. But he did not understand.

He probably thought that Gordon would be, or was already, overwhelmed by a sense of guilt.

Maybe he was right...

* * *

Just a drabble, wasn't sure what to do with it. Got far too many ideas on how to continue with it, but probably can't be bothered to write them down unless I suddenly get a motivationboost or something..

constructive criticism is very much encouraged!


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